June 22nd 1679 saw the Battle of Bothwell Bridge.

Two of my previous posts tie in with this one.

More Royalty and religion and needless loss of life in this battle, or not so much the battle itself, but the aftermath during a shameful period of our history known as the 'killing time',

Following his restoration to the throne, King Charles II gradually imposed strict controls on the religions practised throughout his kingdoms. In particular the Presbyterian Covenanters of Scotland were singled out and persecuted for their beliefs.

If you remember my post on June 1st about the Battle of Drumclog when the Covenanters had a surprise victory against the experienced campaigner John Graham, Bonnie Dundee, this was a direct reply from the Government, the Covenanters spent the next few weeks building their strength, as did the government. Charles’ son James, Duke of Monmouth was sent north to take command, and the militia were raised.

The Covenanters had established their camp on the south bank of the Clyde, north of Hamilton. The rebels numbered  around 6000 men, but were poorly disciplined and deeply divided by religious disagreements. They had few competent commanders, being nominally led by Robert Hamilton of Preston, although his rigid stance against the Indulged ministers only encouraged division. 

The preacher Donald Cargill and William Cleland, the victor of Drumclog, were present, as were David Hackston of Rathillet and John Balfour of Kinloch, known as Burley, who were among the group who murdered Archbishop Sharp,(see my May 3rd post for details of this). The government army numbered around 5000 regular troops and militia, and was commanded by Monmouth, supported by Claverhouse and the Earl of Linlithgow.

Battle centred around the narrow bridge across the Clyde, the passage of which Monmouth was required to force in order to come at the Covenanters. Hackston led the defence of the bridge for them, but his men lacked artillery and ammunition, and were forced to withdraw after around an hour. Once Monmouth’s men were across the bridge, the Covenanters were quickly routed. Many fled into the parks of nearby Hamilton Palace, seat of Duchess Anne, who was sympathetic to the Presbyterian cause. Around 600 Covenanters were killed, while some 1200 were taken prisoner.

The prisoners were taken to Edinburgh and held on land beside Greyfriars Kirkyard, an area now known as the Covenanters’ Prison. Many remained there for several months, those who didn't die there were transported to the colonies in November. 

St Giles.

Did you know that there used to be a statue of St Giles here, but in July 1557 it was stolen and, according to John Knox, was drowned in the Nor' Loch and then burned!

November 22nd 1547 saw 3,000 Scottish troops besiege Broughty Castle, held by an English force.

Second mention of the day for  "The Rough Wooing" when Henry VIII tried to secure a marriage between Mary and his own infant son, Edward.

In 1547 Lord Gray was a supporter of the invading English army against the cause of Mary Queen of Scots. The English arrived by sea at Broughty Castle on 20th September 1547, two weeks after they had defeated the Scottish Army at the Battle of Pinkie. The castle was surrendered to them, and the English immediately set to work on improving its fairly weak defences, mainly by digging a defensive ditch across the landward approach to the castle.

On October 15th 1943 the poet, William Soutar, author of The Diaries of a Dying Man, died.

He described himself as 'a terrible nuisance' at primary school, but at Perth Academy he excelled at both lessons and sports, fell in love, and began to write poetry. He looked back at his last year of school as one of the happiest times of his life.

When Soutar left school in 1916, World War I was already under way, and he joined the Royal Navy, serving in the Atlantic and the North Sea. During this time he became ill with a form of food poisoning and developed symptoms of pain and stiffness which did not respond to treatment. He was discharged from the Navy in early 1919. He began a medical degree at the University of Edinburgh, but soon transferred to study English, graduating in 1923.

By now his health was a continual problem. In 1924 his illness was diagnosed as ankylosing spondylitis, an infection of the spine which had gone too far to be cured. Treatment continued for some years, but after an unsuccessful operation in 1930 he was confined to bed and remained there for the rest of his life. In 1924 his parents had moved into a newly-built house, 'Inglelowe' ('hearth-glow'), in Wilson Street, Perth. Soutar's father, a master joiner, adapted a downstairs room to make a bedroom with a big window overlooking the back garden. Here Soutar spent the next thirteen years, writing poetry and an extensive journal, and entertaining friends, often several hundred in the course of a year. Many of his visitors were writers and his room has been described as a centre for the Scottish literary renaissance. Diagnosed with tuberculosis in July 1943, he began a new volume of his journal, which he entitled The Diary of a Dying Man. He died on 15th October 1943.

The house 'Inglelowe' was bequeathed by Soutar's father to Perth Town Council, with the condition that Soutar's room should be preserved and shown to 'any interested person ... at all reasonable times'. Now known as the Soutar Hoose, it has for some years been the base for a writer-in-residence, and is used for readings and community events.Soutar has quite a few poems scatter aroond the net, I chose this one because I love the word Coorie, which has had a bit of a renascence recently 

Coorie in the corner, sittin a’ alane, Whan the nicht wind’s chappin On the winnock-pane: Coorie in the corner, dinna greet ava; It’s juist a wee bit goloch Rinnin up the wa.

On July 11th 1274 Robert the Bruce was born in Turnberry Castle, Ayrshire.

I don't like repeating the same old story, especially on posts like this, The Bruce turns up so often in my posts that it isn't any wonder he is part of the Scottish Psyche. In 2006 Robert the Bruce came third in a poll of ‘most important Scots’, behind William Wallace and Robert Burns. Leaving aside what that says about the nation that produced, among others, David Hume and Adam Smith, Alexander Fleming and John Logie Baird, there can be no doubt that a king that ruled 700 years ago is still very much remembered by Scots today and, even more pertinently, that his life and achievements are deemed to be profoundly influential. It is hard to imagine Edward III or Henry V of England being similarly admired. 

Not a lot is known about Robert's early life so unfortunately I do end up repeating parts of his life.....

Looking into how he came to be our Monarch, Bruce’s grandfather had come off second best in 1292 to a rival claimant to the Scottish throne, John Balliol, who then reigned for four years until Edward I deprived him of his kingship in 1296. John Comyn of Badenoch, as Balliol’s nephew, had both an arguably better claim by blood and certainly by power, influence and track record than Robert Bruce, for his own ambitions, whether it be just to become King, or for the sake of ridding Scotland of Edwards army  Robert had to ‘deal’ with his rival before seeking the throne for himself.

In this fracturing and fevered environment, the would-be king turned to Bishop Robert Wishart of Glasgow, a man who had shown himself consistently motivated since the 1280s by a desire to keep Scotland intact and independent (though he, like most Scots, had on occasions been forced to acknowledge King Edward as ruler of the northern kingdom). We do not know that Bishop Wishart made Bruce ‘swear upon the Holy Gospels and the tomb of St Kentigern’ to pursue the cause of Scottish independence with his life, if necessary. Equally, no chronicler at the time mentions the introduction of elements of sacramental kingship that the Scots had long sought from the pope but been denied thanks to English claims of overlordship on the day that Bruce finally did become king. If you've seen the new film about The Bruce, you will know it is all about the man himself, rather than the historical facts in his reign, and that's why I liked it, I mean come on, we ALL know the story by now and if you don't what have you been doing for the past few years as you haven't been reading my posts! Robert Bruce, was a man possessed with the ability to think laterally and effectively on almost every issue but saddled by his own hand with one of the most dodgy starts to a successful reign as any in history. Some say he learned to think this way after observing William Wallace, I also like to think this, but he had enough savvy himself to be his own man. 

The problem with looking at Scotland in those heady days is that, unlike England, we hardly wrote anything down, Edward and his constant war waging meant he had to raise money for these attacks on Scotland and Wales beforehand, so the English always had that extra layer of bureaucracy, while historians can look at some of their records to glean information about Scotland, we mainly have to look at Chroniclers, like Lanecrost, or the likes of Blind Harry, the author of "he Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace" And John Barbour who wrote "The Brus".  In the first case Harry wrote his epic over 150 years after William Wallace's murder. At least Barbour was living in an age where The Bruce was alive, albeit for nine of the years, but events and  stories were still fresh and must have been repeated often about our Kings heroics in unting Scotland and vanquishing the English. But Barbour was never going to write anything negative about Bruce, it was Robert II, the first of the Stewart line, that asked Barbour to write the poem, it was always going to be a great propaganda exercise. 

Okay let's go back a wee bit, there has been some debate about where Bruce was born, some mischief makers even suggest he was not born at Turnberry, after all we have no diminutive proof, but at Writtle in deepest Essex. The Bruce family owned swathes of land down south, and there is no doubt the young Robert would have spent time in the depths of the English royal courts, he was not uncouth Scottish brute, he grew up in a world of fluid identities, no doubt speaking a number of languages, and with easy access to both the overtly powerful and impressively formal English court as well as the highly personal and personable style of kingship still preferred in Scotland.

One of the things Robert the Bruce may very well have learned from the English and used most notably was the commandeering of noble seals to be attached to documents of state in order to present a veneer of unity to the outside world, this is most notable in the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath, it has been argued he took this inspiration from King Edwards, Ragman Rolls, Edward I’s large-scale demand for Scottish seals to acknowledge his right to rule Scotland in 1296. After Bannockburn and the Declaration of Arbroath King Robert’s genius as a lawmaker and diplomat to rival his undoubted skill as a military leader has also been admired, he had a fine line to tread, while he had gained the upper hand against Edward II's army, many Scots fought against him that day, or at very least supported the English. Even after his death some of those families on the losing side that would come back  to try and regain lands and titles from the second Bruce monarch, his son King David II.